Individuals who suffer degenerative disc disease, natural spine deformations, a herniated disc, spine injuries or other spine disorders often require surgery on the affected region to relieve the individual from pain and prevent further injury. Such spinal surgeries may involve removal of damaged joint tissue, insertion of a tissue implant and/or fixation of two or more adjacent vertebral bodies, with the surgical procedure varying depending on the nature and extent of the injury. For patients with varying degrees of degenerative disc disease and/or nerve compression with associated lower back pain, spinal fusion surgery or lumbar arthrodesis (“fusion”) is commonly used to treat the degenerative disease. Fusion commonly involves distracting and/or decompressing one or more intervertebral spaces, followed by removing any associated facet joints or discs, and then joining or “fusing” two or more adjacent vertebra together. Fusion of vertebral bodies also commonly involves fixation of two or more adjacent vertebrae, which may be accomplished through introduction of rods or plates, and screws or other devices into a vertebral joint to join various portions of a vertebra to a corresponding portion on an adjacent vertebra.
Fusion may occur in the lumbar, thoracic or cervical spine region of a patient. Fusion requires tools for accessing the vertebrae and implanting the desired implant, any bone graft or bioactive material, etc. Such procedures often require introduction of additional tools and/or instruments, including drills, drill guides, debridement tools, irrigation devices, vises, clamps, cannulae, retractors, distracters, cutting tools, cutting guides and other insertion/retraction tools and instruments to prepare the space for achieving fusion. The insertion, alignment and placement of these surgical devices are critical to the success of the operation. As such, providing an adjustable or otherwise configurable surgical device or implant, which is flexible and configurable to meet the particular patient's needs and any existing constraints, increases the likelihood that the surgical procedure will be successful.
Given the complexities of surgical procedures, as well as anatomical variation between patients who receive surgical devices, it is often challenging to provide a device or implant that achieves the needs of a particular patient without completely customizing the device or implant for a single patient. In particular, implants are often designed for ease of use during insertion, but compromise the implant's ability to provide adequate support or fail to properly restore disc height, for example. Thus, there is a present and long felt need to provide an implant which may be manipulated in various manners according to the stage of the surgical procedure, and in particular accommodate delivery through a minimally invasive portal. There is also a present need for an implant that may quickly, easily and efficiently be manipulated in a plurality of configurations.
Although expandable implants have been proposed, the prior art fails to teach the novel aspects of the present disclosure. For example, prior art implants are not suitable for use in a surgical procedure where the implant is first inserted through a minimally invasive portal, then easily manipulated and configured to conform to the patient's anatomical features and provide better stability and/or load sharing. Current implant designs also do not assist the surgeon in completing the surgical procedure(s) quickly, safely and efficiently, and are also subject to the problems and risks noted above. Other advantages over the prior art will become known upon review of the Summary and Detailed Description of the Invention and appended drawing figures.